* pressing on in the dark *

Well There It Is

2009-11-09T13:43:00.000-08:00

Unbelievably smart and sad to me...

Get your Groupon

2009-11-08T17:14:00.001-08:00

If you live in one of these cities...

...then please sign up for Groupon. It's a killer deal where you buy "coupons" with scores of other folks. Like paying $15 for a $35 gift card to your favorite restaurant in town. And it's a different Groupon for sale each day.

And if you sign up below, it gets me a small kickback, so what are you waiting for? It costs nothing to sign up!

So seriously, sign up.

Remy Sharp!

2009-11-07T18:22:00.000-08:00

Arriving in at 9.5 lbs at 4:04am today.

Follow him at...

http://remysharp.blogspot.com

Oregonian Vino

2009-11-06T10:09:00.001-08:00

Dan and I had the chance to do some tasting at the Southern Oregon Wine Association's "gala" last Sunday. It was a nice chance to meet some winemakers and try some local-ish wines...and all for free because I sorta "won" the tickets.

Most people don't realize that Oregon isn't just home to world-class Pinot Noir. In fact, southern Oregon is better suited (as is eastern Washington) to warm-climate grapes like the great Bordeaux varietals and some of California's favorites like Zin and Syrah as well.

Below is the review I wrote. It's mirrored here on the Oregon Wine Blog. Enjoy...

Last Sunday was the perfect day for tasting the wines of Southern Oregon. The rain let up for a bit, making the crossing of the river from SE to SW beautiful and clear. It's a wonderful thing to taste wine from southern Oregon...and even more wonderful when it's brought to my town.

We entered the Governor Hotel and quickly assessed that we were the only 2 people under age 40. Not that there's anything wrong with people 40 and over, but I am constantly amazed at the lack of under-40-ers that show up to these things. All my friends drink wine, and they're mostly in their 20s and 30s. Hmm.

We picked up the tasting guide, surveyed the room, and chose the wineries we'd taste from. It seemed that spending time with just a handful of the wineries present allowed us to actually hear a bit about the different winemaking decisions, vineyard practices, and visions for each bottle of wine poured.

It was enlightening. And discouraging. All at the same time.

Parts of southern Oregon seem quite suitable for Rhone varietals, so many folks had planted Syrah and Viognier. One winery had also planted Marsanne and Rousanne. There were the usual suspects as well...Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris, Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, and Tempranillo. And there were some slightly more obscure varietals like Petit Sirah (obscure for Oregon), Cab Franc, Albariño, and Dolcetto.

Misty Oaks '07 Cabernet Franc was a solid and inky. They were pouring it, but not selling it. D'oh!

Agate Ridge served up a nice, smoky '06 Syrah. It had a very sweet nose, perhaps from the barrel. Nice medium body and delicate finish. Their whites (Viognier and Marsanne/Rousanne) were reminiscent of the buttery Chardonnays that I don't particularly care for. It probably had a bit to do their barrel-fermentation and the grapes general lack of acid.

Folin Cellars poured out of bottles with glass stoppers. It was fun to get an earful about cork taint! Their '06 Estate Tempranillo was yummy. Nice structure, tons of tannis to stick to your teeth, not as acidic as many Tempranillos. I bet you could cellar this for a few years and find yourself with a gem of a wine!

The '04 Pinot Noir from Henry Estate Winery was dead-on cherry cola. A little vanilla and black pepper as well. Probably our favorite Pinot for the event. The years in the bottle had really allowed the wine to soften and settle. Quite a treat at $30!

Spangler Vineyard's Petit Sirah is always solid. The '06 (which they were out of) blew us away in the past. It was nice to get acquainted with their '07. Lots of white pepper and a surprising amount of fruit for this varietal.

The Dolcetto from Palotai Vineyard & Winery was light and spicy. I bet it'll be a hot commodity for Thanksgiving this year.

Pebblestone Cellars seemed to be the only winery represented using Viognier in their Syrah. The co-ferment the dark Syrah with about 3% Viognier to make the color even richer. The complexity of the color compounds increases when these ferment together. This is an old French secret.

But the big surprise was the Giradet Wine Cellars' Baco Noir. Never heard of it? Neither had we. Full of bacon fat (hold the grease) and blueberry jam, with a long, chocolaty finish, this was my wine of choice. Apparently they smuggled this hybrid grape in years back. And they seem to be the only vineyard growing it in Oregon.

All in all, it was a fun time. I'm excited to see how these wineries and vineyards continue to evolve and experiment. I remember one winemaker saying, "Yah, we tried this or that idea a few years back and then tweaked it the following year." I like hearing stuff like that. People who are still up for some risk-taking, even if it means creating something less-than for one vintage. It keeps things interesting!

Enneagram Type 3

2009-11-02T19:46:00.001-08:00

Well, while I don't want to limit people by typing them, the enneagram does do a good job at categorizing people. My friend Dustin is suspicious of such things, and I'd tend to agree with him in this: If you can develop a system with types/categories, then you can prejudge people unfairly. It also can be unhelpful in that it can cause you to dismiss people based on a few unshared interests/tendancies. We confuse Reality with our categories for understanding reality.

Still, I find the enneagram to be quite helpful. I don't trust it as How the Universe Works, but rather (as Wilber would say), a map to the Kosmos.

Anyway, I am a 3 with a 4 wing. Holly is a 2. Reading up on types and how they interact really has helped us in several ways. Here's a little rundown of how 2s and 3s work together.

There is a particular way that this pairing works as a team: Twos like to put the spotlight on others, and Threes like to be in the spotlight. Twos like to be the power behind the throne, and Threes can be happy being the point person for the couple. As long as healthy Threes appreciate the lavish attention of the Two, this arrangement can work well. In a sense, this is almost an ideal political couple—socially adept, energetic, virtually radiating charm and self-confidence, inviting others (by their manner and attractiveness) to join them in some way. Twos and Threes can be dazzling—a couple so widely admired and socially gifted that they become icons for their social sphere and time. More...

We learned of the enneagram several years ago from some friends in Minneapolis, MN. At that time, I wondered if I was an 8...but all these years later, I realize it was my 3-self wanting to be an 8 (like many of my mentors).

I have found the enneagram to be very helpful and would suggest you take a look at it. There is a test (which sometimes can work), but what I find most helpful is to read through each type's basic desire and fear and place yourself. Enneagram Institute and 9types both seem to be good resources for this such thing.

I think this sort of thing is fun if not taken too seriously. In so many ways, I am all of the types. And in so many ways, the enneagram has my number (really). Enjoy!

PS - Here's a table below that's worth checking out...you'll need to click on it.

There Is No King

2009-11-01T13:36:00.000-08:00

Holly and I loved WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE. It was emotionally moving, visually stimulating and well-written. I've gotta say Dave Eggers is a new force to be reckoned within the screenwriting world. Did you see AWAY WE GO? Wow.

There are so many beautiful psychological issues that are brought up in this film. And it's all done in a quite un-cliché sort of way. The frustrations of childhood, nearing adolescence, split home, parents dating again, sibling rivalry and exclusion. Stuff that most of us deal with in our later life as well. Perhaps our childhood is hyperbolic of what the rest of life will be like...I dunno.

There is a scene where Carol (the monster that, in some ways, represents Max's father) realizes that Max isn't really a king; he's only been pretending. And it just destroys Carol. He had been waiting and waiting and waiting for a real king. Someone to make sense of it all. Someone external to himself that would bring happiness, stability, sanity, hope. There had been several "false" kings who had come before Max (and met unfortunate fates), and they had left this group in a sort of constant existential turmoil, wondering what to do and how to live. This island is characterized by the confusion of a group in need of a leader...a group that refuses to turn inward to find it's own center.

"There is no king," the characters say. It's heartbreaking to watch Carol go through grieving process of this realization. But it seemed the only way to freedom...and the only way to have a healthy relationship with Max...or anyone.

Of all that the movie offered, that is what resonated most with me. I see so many of us scrambling to find signposts for how to live, what to do, where to go, etc. So, so, so many people externalize, not trusting themselves to find their own center. We use religious figures, political affiliations, authors, partners/spouses, careers, even celebrities to tell us where to go and what to do. But, of course, we hear all their words through our own filter, both personally and communally (which has layer upon layer).

What if we were to actually trust ourselves? And why do so few of us do this? We have been taught to trust only things that are "out there." We have built theological systems based on the smallness of myself. We disguise that in so-called humility when really, most of it is about a dis/mis-trust of self. We don't even know how to listen to ourselves very well. We busy our minds and bodies with things to do, studying the words, thoughts, actions of historical and contemporary figures.

Sure, sure, we do not come to realize ourselves alone. But still we are the only ones who can change ourselves. I am the only one who can change myself.

LET YOUR LIFE SPEAK (by Parker Palmer) was such a powerful book for me because it told me that it was okay to trust myself, even when I follow it into the dark places that I was taught to fear. That only by going deep into one's own self (psychosis, passion, leanings, etc.) can one free oneself.

I think this might be one of the greatest obstacles to human (social, spiritual, economic, educational, etc.) development. But the overcoming of this obstacle might just be the key to freedom.

There is no king. Deal with it.

Holly in GENERATE Magazine

2009-11-01T11:55:00.001-08:00

Some of you have already seen it, but we just got our last week and were very happy to see Holly's art featured so prominently. Some snapshots...

Really cool to see her new pieces in print like this. Thanks to all the great folks (Mak, Tim, and Paul "Best Designer We Know" Soupiset) for putting this together. Breath-taking.

Subscribe here.

Evolve or Die

2009-10-25T08:49:00.001-07:00

Probably the two most spiritually influential books for me over the last few years have been Ken Wilbur's A THEORY OF EVERYTHING and Edwin Friedman's A FAILURE OF NERVE. These books have given words to feelings I have had. They also took me further than I could go on my own.

These books are quite different, but they have a common thread: They both base their hypotheses on evolutionary theories. Their assumption is that creation is going SOMEWHERE. Wilbur uses spiral dynamics as well as his 4-quadrant approach to get this across. Friedman uses evidence from how our survival instincts have caused us to bond together (or remain separate and distinct) only when it is useful on an evolutionary level.

At Brittian's suggestion (and by the persuasion of Krista Tippet's SPEAKING OF FAITH podcast), I am reading Eckhart Tolle's A NEW EARTH. I am really only into the first chapter, but I already vibe with a good deal of his assumptions about how the world works and where we find ourselves.

His theory is also based on the idea that humanity is at a crucial moment of evolution. And it is, again for me, very compelling. He primarily seems to be pointing toward a more inner type of evolution (inner in both a personal and communal sense...the two "interior quadrants" Wilbur would say). Perhaps he'll broaden this to a larger internal-external, 4-quadrant approach by the end of the book, we'll see.

Brittian and I had a short conversation via text yesterday about this idea of "Evolve or Die!" which is a sort of slogan that you tend to hear in some of the more progressive/liberal/environmentalist circles. Tolle points to the idea that (as many evolutionary theorists would agree with) we came from the water. At some point along the way, some creature climbed out of the water...and slowly, over the course of a good deal of time, land-based animals began to appear. But the fact that Brittian brought up is that we still have fish and reptiles (that never became birds) and other "lower species" as I've heard them called.

And I wonder what this means regarding the greater global consciousness. Must we all evolve? Wilbur offers a comforting (for me) way to look at this...through spiral dynamics...which while moving on a sort of linear path, it doesn't assume hierarchy, but rather a holarchy. But what would it mean if most of the leading edge of "progression" in this world was to happen in the West? Brittian and I both had a sort of visceral response in opposition to that idea...for why would WE be the ones? We, the people of violence, massacre, atom bombs, etc?

Truly a good many of us have felt a good deal of guilt about our place as privileged, white, American, European, whatever equals powerful people. We have been ashamed, questioned our assumptions about identity, reframed historic figures to speak out against us (as some sort of penance), and generally felt lower than humble.

But then I thought of Mandela's oft-quoted comment, "Our greatest fear is not that we are inadequate, but that we are powerful beyond measure." And I think that we are afraid that WE REALLY ARE THE ONES. It seems arrogant, ridiculous, and downright awful. After all, hasn't this mentality been the thing that has fueled the likes of Manifest Destiny?

But perhaps we (certainly me) have thrown the baby out with the bathwater a few too many times. And this is where Friedman was helpful for me. Getting over our desire to do everything "right" and instead aiming for the good...for a fucking decision at all! I mean, how many of us are stuck, wondering, weighing the options, waiting for some ridiculous notion of external confirmation (how many times have I groaned while hearing, "I'm waiting for God to show me what to do."). Bogus! We have failed to listen to our own selves, to believe in ourselves.

"Your playing small does not serve the world," says Mandela. And perhaps he's right.

I think we stand in a great moment in history. And perhaps I'm wrong. But I do think that we have this opportunity ahead of us. And perhaps this opportunity is not available to all people in all cultures at all times (something that in the past would have discouraged me from thinking some of these thoughts). But perhaps it is available to some of us.

What do we do with that? I'm gonna read on with Tolle and see what he has to say.

Reflections on WineMaking

2009-10-22T09:15:00.000-07:00

Here are some photos Holly and Bethany took along the way...I'll post them every once in a while.

We'll start with cleaning and crush. We rented a big ole crusher-destemmer from the local brew shop to help us process the 1/2 ton of grapes we got. The machine takes the stems out and lightly crushes the grapes. In ancient times (and still today in some circles), people actually do stomp these with their feet. We were happy to let technology work for us. :)

I brewed up my FreshHop Pale Ale for the occasion. We all drank our share that evening, finishing off about 4 of the 5 gallons in that keg. Mmm.

I think it'd be worth it to click on the images to get them bigger!

Press Cycle: Syrah

2009-10-20T09:25:00.000-07:00

Cheers,
Ryan

Sent from the future.

To reach me in the present, call me at 503.662.2120 or email me at ryanleesharp@gmail.com
or visit me online at http://www.SharpSeven.com.

HopTrip!

2009-10-15T18:16:00.000-07:00

I must say that I was so disappointed this year for Sept to roll
around and for Zupan's/Meyer not to carry this fine beverage. What
gives?!?

After some searching, I found some at the Meyer in Hollywood. Thank G
as my sis says.

HopTrip is a real treat. And it's only available for about 1-2 months
each fall. Made from wet hops (or fresh, undried hops), it is the
smoothest Pale Ale you've had. This is the beer I modeled my last
batch after.

So happy it's here. And happy to be drinking it this evening.

Ahh Autumn

2009-10-15T16:41:00.000-07:00

My favorite time of year.

Malo

2009-10-05T14:18:00.000-07:00

The wine is in the barrel, so today is the day to innoculate te wine
with Malo Lactic Bacteria. This is also called secondary fermentation.
In contrast to primary, where yeasts convert sugars to co2 and
alcohol, secondary is the act of converting malic acid (think apple
tartness) to lactic acid. This makes for a smoother feeling and
tasting wine.

In addition to getting secondary going, today we start stirring the
lees (the sediment at the bottom of the barrel...mainly spent yeasts).
For this we have a plastic/steel stirrer that we attach to a low-speed
power drill.

We will keep the temp around 70' and hope to see bubbles soon!

Racking to Barrel

2009-10-04T21:12:00.000-07:00

Yes, yes, it is a little sooner than we had anticipated, but we
thought it best to transfer earlier.

The barrel smells sweet and the time is right. Here goes...

Spoils

2009-10-02T12:44:00.000-07:00

Well, we pressed this morning. Pics to come. Got about 73 gallons or
so. We will lose as much as 10 gallons along the way due to racking
and evaporation. And then we will also end up with 3 gallons of Petit
Sirah.

What a fun, wet day. And here are our spoils to enjoy right now. An
extra few liters. Yum.

Time to Press

2009-10-01T18:59:00.000-07:00

Brix count is below zero. It is a good time to press. Tomorrow AM.

October

2009-10-01T07:38:00.000-07:00

Enjoy this old tune...

Wake up again, the gentle leaves are falling
Wake up again, the wind has blown me through
Another night of impatient waiting for you...

Consider getting someone some music from The Cobalt Season through our website. And celebrate fall!

Work Today

2009-09-30T10:20:00.001-07:00

Drove with Chris to Dundee to get some Pinot samples.

Dan

2009-09-30T07:08:00.000-07:00

Dan is one of the partners in this fermentation venture. Here's us
pouring the Petit Sirah must into a carboy for settling. It was just
at 5 brix (% sugar), so it'll keep fermenting for a bit. Transfering
before complete dryness ensures a good co2 environment. It's gonna be
a tasty beast!

Pressing Petit Sirah

2009-09-29T20:17:00.000-07:00

Hydrometer Tests

2009-09-27T16:40:00.001-07:00

We try to check the sugar percentage each day or so to see how the
fermentation is coming along. The lowest count is 3% in one bin and
the highest is 12% in the bin that we cold soaked for 3 days.

Adam gets in town Thursday night and we are scheduled to press on
Friday morning. Should be fun.

Delestage

2009-09-25T20:20:00.001-07:00

So to homebrewers this probably looks like racking. Which it is. But
with fermenting musts, it's called Delestage. It's the slow process of
draining the juice and then returning it so as to oxygenate the must.

2 of our 5 bins are producing a lot of H2S which smells like eggs.
Yum. No big. But time to address the prob.

Punchdown

2009-09-23T08:08:00.000-07:00

3-4 times a day, Dan and I take sugar and temperature readings to see
how fermentation is going. We also stick our arms in and remix the
juice and skins/seeds. Because fermentation creates co2, it's bubbles
push the solids to the top. Punchdown mixes everything back together
so we can hopefully achieve a properly extracted Zin.

Cold Soak

2009-09-22T20:24:00.000-07:00

We are cold soaking one of the batches. This means getting the
temperature below 50' for a few days so as to inhibit fermentation and
allow time to sit and extract certain flavor and mouthfeel elements.

We tried to simply use ice in bags but eventually we stepped up and
bought dry ice. Hence the witch's brew!

Co-Conspirators

2009-09-22T20:19:00.000-07:00

Here are the four yeast strains we are using.